TV licence is a tax and that’s why George will not pay it

If you are against paying for a 'dud' service how about chucking the TV out and learning the almost 'lost art' of entertaining yourselves? If you have a PC you can 'catch up' with most of the repeats on it! and in the meantime learn to talk to each other (we used to when we were young and the only things that made a lasting impression on us were our parents and peers and the sense, or otherwise, that they spoke)!!!!!

You're absolutely right, Karma. I was paying 140 a year for a license, plus 240 for a Sky subscription. When the Sky box broke down and they wanted 65 for a repair, I thought "Wait a minute, I only ever watch one channel for all that money" (No, not BBC!). I got rid of the television and box. Saves me nearly 400 a year and I can still watch my favorite shows live or saved online. I contacted TV Licensing about this, to which they replied that you do not require a license to watch channels online that are not normally available in the UK on satellite, cable or terrestrial. As I only watch US programing (and a couple of Canadian), there's no problem. If you watch BBC online, you still require a license. Many younger folks in the US have given up on televisions (and there's not even a TV tax!) with the availability of sites like HULU, where you can watch just about anything when you want to.
To answer Fast Robert: I find it scary when people can't see that a state-run media network is biased. Reminds me of the days of Pravda. I watch Fox News. Yes, they are biased, no one can dispute that. But there is one huge difference between Fox News and the BBC - News Corp. does not force anyone to pay a huge amount of money each year, whether you watch the channel or not. Check this out for examples of bias:

http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/

ISLANDERS caught without a TV licence are escaping prosecution.
While detector vans have since November reportedly found 60 householders illegally watching television, none seems to have been prosecuted.
Trevor Butcher has refused to pay his licence for the last seven years and the only consequence has been a monthly letter threatening him with a court appearance and a fine.
He had paid his licence by Direct Debit until he discovered that it was not in his name. When TV Licensing refused to change the name without copies of his utility bills, Mr Butcher stopped paying.
About a month later a TV inspector knocked on his door.
‘He asked if I had a TV and I said yes, several,’ said Mr Butcher. ‘He then asked about whether I had a licence. I explained what had happened and he spoke to his head office, but he couldn’t get it changed either. I refuse to pay until this is settled,’ he said.
‘I want them to take me to court. They keep saying they will take action, but I am still waiting.’
A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘The matter is handed over to the Guernsey Constabulary to action – the decision to prosecute is taken by them.’ (from thisisguernsey)

So the question is.Why are these people not being prosecuted?
The other question was.Why were the states (last year)advertising for a TV license compliance officer or something similar?

Deebay

The BBC is not 'state-run', and you didn't answer my question: what is it biased for or against?

The BBC channels are worth every penny, would you prefer to go down the "american" route?, have 10mins of programme followed by 5mins of adverts.

Couldn't wait for first of Lost season 6 on friday but was frustrated to hell with the above mentioned advert breaks !!! AAARRRGGG !!!

Our area went digital last year now we are more or less forced to have a sky boxas the freeveiw signa is crap. The picture in the living room keeps breaking up or no sound the bedrooms 75% of the time have o pictue at all. it is just a shambles. Previously i gt a picture in all rooms. Now BBC is virtualy unwatchable unless you have a satalitte dish and box. my video does not work DVD recorder does not work have to have sky plus or similar to be able to record anything £10 extra per room 3 be house makes it 77 pounds a month or thereabouts pus the bbc liscence fee. I download a lot of programmes from Canada and america and get them weeks ahead of the UK But even if i did away with the areial and dish you still apparently have to pay the liscence as you have equiptment capable of receiving a signal.

"I download a lot of programmes from Canada and america and get them
weeks ahead of the UK But even if i did away with the areial and dish
you still apparently have to pay the liscence as you have equiptment
capable of receiving a signal."

I'm assuming you watch the downloaded material on a standard TV set? If that is the case, then you do still require a license, as the TV has a built in tuner. To be exempt from the requirement of a license, you cannot have ANY capability of receiving BBC transmissions (TV inbuilt tuner, digibox, freeview box etc.) This ALSO includes having BBC i-player installed on your computer.

To clarify, this is from the TV Licensing website:

"If you watch or record television programmes that are broadcast from outside the UK, you still need a TV Licence.

The exception is if you are watching programmes that are only available to UK audiences on the internet and are not broadcast as part of a satellite or other domestic distribution service."

Even freesat has to be installed at a cost £120 for box and dish plus instalation fee of £60 need a box for every room it aint cheap. My point is we had an excellent reception on the analoqoue system now we have nothing to speak of. We have a builtin freveiw in 2 of our tvs the signal is crap not the equiptment and you cannot record anything unless you buy a special box with a hard drive recorder. All your recording equiptment becomes unusable.

''I download a lot of programmes from Canada and America''

How? where?

no B&Q here have to go miles. you do not get the point you cannot record one programe while watching another you have to buy a digital recorder such as sky plus. We have been switch for a few months now and we cannot get a decent signal. as for dl pogs there are plenty of torrent sites i would be breaking the law if i told you where the are but some are well known anyway such as piratebay and other sites like that. I have watched 3 episodes of the new spartacus series and no UK company has took up the option of showing it

http://www.tvcorn.com
streamed